Chapter Four:

Never taking his eyes off of her, "You know I could really go for some root beer with this pizza, what about you?" He continues to look at her, "Red, you want a root beer?"
 
"Yeah," louder, "Yeah that sounds good."
 
"Hey Matthew, why don't you go get us some root beers, okay?"
 
"Yeah" he says as he heads towards the kitchen
 
Bo looked at Nora, "You love me?"
 
Nora stands up and walks over to the other side of the room. Bo gets up and walks up behind her, laying his hand on her shoulder, "Nora, look at me, please." She turns to face him; losing the battle with her emotions...a single tear falls. He reaches up and wipes it away, "Nora, is what Matthew said true?"
 
"Oh Bo," she hesitates, a small laugh escapes, "Of course I love you I always have, you’re my best friend," she looks up at him, whispering, "My son's father." She gently stroked his cheek, and whispered questioningly, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer or not, "but..." she’s suddenly choked up with emotion, "Do you--do you love me?"
 
He takes her by the hand and leads her back over the couch. Just then Matthew came running out of the kitchen with the root beers. He notices the look between his parents and stops, "What's the matter?"
 
Nora looks up at him and smiles, "Nothing’s the matter sweetie. Listen, why don't you take your root beer and your pizza into the kitchen and finish it in there. Bo and I need to talk for a minute."
 
"But mom, you promised we could watch a movie while we ate tonight…" he whined.
 
Bo smiled; then frowned at how much of his son’s life he had missed, how much responsibility has been solely on her shoulders, and how great a job she’d done. "Tell you what champ, you go ahead and finish that up in the kitchen and this weekend, you me and your mom, will spend all day pigging out in front of the TV watching movies, okay?" absentmindedly stroking the back of her hand as he talked.
 
Matthew looked at Bo excited "You promise?"
 
"Absolutely champ. Now let me finish talking to your mom, and then we can have that re- match alright?"
 
 “Alright, but I'm gonna win!!" Matthew raced back into the kitchen anxious to get to play the game with Bo.
 
Bo watched him until he was out of the room and then turned back to Nora smiling, "I know I've said this a lot since we found out that he was mine, but he really is the best kid...it truly is all thanks to you." They both look down at his hand resting on top of hers as a moment of silence passes between them; her question still hanging in the air. He looks up at her and smiles, a few tears welling in his eyes, "To answer your question...Yes Nora, I do love you. I don't think I've really ever stopped but so much has happened....in the past, and now there's Matthew…"
 
"And Gabrielle," she adds.
 
Unable to stop the tears from falling, she goes to turn away; he pulls her shoulders back, so that she has to face him, "No." He wipes the tears with his fingers, "Gabrielle has nothing to do with this. I’ve been burying the feelings I have for you for so long, I'm just not sure what we need to...to ....go forward."
 
"I'm not sure." She looked back up at him "Love was never the problem between us, it was circumstance, and that’s what tore us apart Bo. I think we need to deal with that first." He nodded in agreement, wiping a stray tear from her face. "We need to tell him tonight."
 
"Tonight it is," she smiles softly.
 
He brought her hand up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on it, "Then we're going to talk about what's going on here between us. A long honest, lay it all out on the table talk okay?"
 
She nods, "We do have a lot to talk about."
 
Matthew walks in, his face covered in pizza sauce, he takes one look at him, "Well, he definitely is your son," laughing.
 
"Hey" she smacks him, "I remember a time or two that you had pizza sauce on your face, and it looked exactly like that; that exact smile and everything!"
 
Neither noticed the confused look crossing Matthew's face, “I look like Bo?” Bo and Nora looked between each other realizing their faux paus. Matthew looked at the two of them more confused than ever. "What's going on mom?"
 
She patted the couch between her and Bo; "Come here buddy" He did so. "Bo and I need to talk to you."
 
He looked over up at his mother "Am I in trouble?"
 
"No, baby, you're not in trouble. Bo and I just really need to talk to you." Nora looked at Bo with a nervous look on her face. He winks at her knowing that this was finally a dream come true. Nora takes Matthew's hand and takes a deep breath before continuing, "Matthew sweetie, remember when you came home from school one day and asked me all about where babies come from?"
 
"Yeah, and you told me that there's a mommy and a daddy and when they love each other a part of the mommy and a part of the daddy make a baby."
 
She looks over at Bo who is trying to conceal his laughter at the way she explained things to him, "That's right sweetie, that's what I said. Now do you remember me telling you that Bo and I were married once and loved each other?"
 
Matthew nods, as he looks at his mother, a smile forming on his lips, "I have Bo's smile cuz he's my daddy, and that's the part that came from him, huh?" He looks between his parents, both staring at him with blank faces.
 
Neither of them thought he would have come to that conclusion on his own, they were stunned. "That's exactly right, sweetie. Bo is your daddy. So what do think about that?"
 
"He's really my daddy; you’re not just saying that he is, right?"
 
Bo broke into the conversation and Matthew turned to look at him "No, I'm really your dad, champ."
 
Matt looked down at his lap for a moment, "So...umm...can I…can I call you daddy?" he asked quietly.
 
Bo and Nora just looked at each other with tears in their eyes, "Of course you can, sweetie. Bo's your daddy, he's your real daddy and nothing is ever going to change that."
 
Matthew looks between his parents again and then down at their hands each resting on one of his knees. He takes their hands and places them on top of each other. "Now we can be a real family." Matthew looks down at his parents hands, then at each of their faces, a puzzled look forming, "Is this," he points to their hands touching, "the way a part of the mommy and daddy get together to make the baby?"
 
Bo and Nora looked at each other, then down at their hands, letting go as though the contact burned their skin. This was the last question they thought they would get from him, the last thing they thought they would have to explain. "Uh--no Matthew sweetie it’s a lot more...."
 
Bo jumped in to help her "Complicated"
 
“Yeah right what your dad said; it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
 
"How is it more complicated? I wanna know."
 
"Well uh," she begins; glaring at Bo, he just looks at her helpless, and shrugs his shoulders, "Matthew honey, when a man and a woman love each other, they..." Bo begins to laugh, "Okay, you’re so smart you explain it."
 
"Matthew, when a man and a woman love each other…”, he looks over at Nora who has an ‘I told you so look on her face’, he looks back down at Matthew who is anxiously awaiting an answer, “well let's just say there's more to it than just holding hands and when you're older we'll finish this discussion, okay?"
 
"Okay dad." He jumps off the couch, "I want popcorn,” yelling over his shoulder as he heads to the kitchen.
 
Bo looks at Nora, "See honey, boys are easy, we don't need all the details."
 
"Oh" she said, raising her eyebrows, "well are you going to give him all the details when he’s older?"
 
"About his mother and father, no, that would traumatize him, are you nuts, no boy wants to hear that about his parents..." he looks at her suddenly turning serious, still holding her hand, he swallows, "Anyway, I don't want him to think about you and Sam that way. I don't want to think about you and Sam that way." he finishes in a whisper.
 
She looked into his eyes and ran her fingers through his hair "I'm sorry. You have no idea how sorry I really am. You shou--"
 
He put his fingers to her lips "Shh, not now, tonight is about our son."
 
"Yeah, our son."
 
Matt came back into the room with the bag of popcorn and plopped down between Bo and Nora, "Dad?"
 
"Yeah, son?" Bo and Nora look at each other again, smiling.
 
"I love you, Dad..."
 
Bo looks down at their son and smiles as Matthew lays his head against Bo's shoulder, "I love you too, son." Bo looks up at Nora the tears resting on her cheeks mirror his as they both give each other a knowing look. They had taken the first step in becoming a family, now they just have to face the past in order to face the future.
 
TBC....